On some of the more southerly blogs I read, I've seen posts in recent days heralding the return of spring. Little signs are beginning to appear and everyone is beginning to feel blood stir in their veins. We still have plenty of cold weather ahead of us in my part of Missouri, though there are scattered, unseasonably warm days. Our last trip to Roundrock was one of those warm days. I looked sharp for the signs of spring, but I think it's still a little early. However, as I was sitting on a rock during our hike along the fence perimeter, I looked up and saw a tree filled with the buds you see above. I'm pretty sure this is a hackberry tree. We have plenty of them in the wetter parts of our woods, and since the rock I was sitting on was on the north-facing slope, I was in the wetter part of our woods. (The rock itself was dry though.) From what I've read about hackberries, I judge these buds to be male flowers. Hackberries will have both male and female flowers on the same tree. I'm eager to get back to the woods to see how these buds are coming along (as well as just to be back in the woods). I expect each visit now will bring more signs of life. Missouri calendar:

• Walleye move onto shoals for spawning through April.

Today in Missouri history:

• Missouri’s famous “Houn’ Dawg Division” was formed on this date in 1891. This part of the National Guard saw service in many important conflicts and took its name from an old song about a dog that was kicked around.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 1:01 am and is filed under Green Things. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.